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I have made three YouTube Videos for driving a CMAX the way it was designed to be driven, Called "How to drive a CMAX Hybrid to get great gas mileage",Also " CMAX Mods to improve MPG's" and "Hypermiling to improve MPG's".

Efficiency and Aerodynamic Mods: The First thing to do is to raise your tire pressure of your Michelin's to 50psi which is safe to do and I got 64k miles for each set of tires on my CMAX.

Hypermiling Video not recommended for those who can't focus on situational awareness of traffic around you all the time.

I'm still on the fence about blocking all the air in the grill and forcing the engine to run hotter. Something about cool engines makes me think they will last longer. I can see in the winter it might be more ideal to keep the temp up more when cycling the engine on surface streets so you can rob the heat from the engine for the cabin heater. The grill has louvers that close, apparently they block the air but not as much as with your covers.

The wheel well covers look a little tacky, do you experience any paint rubbing off from them being on there and vibrating during travel?

I'm still on the fence about blocking all the air in the grill and forcing the engine to run hotter. Something about cool engines makes me think they will last longer. I can see in the winter it might be more ideal to keep the temp up more when cycling the engine on surface streets so you can rob the heat from the engine for the cabin heater.Generally speaking the hotter the ICE runs the more efficient it is. I don't take any corrective action until WT gets above 230*F and I have been doing this for over 4yrs.

The grill has louvers that close, apparently they block the air but not as much as with your covers. You are right and the cooling system has way more cooling capacity than needed.

The wheel well covers look a little tacky, do you experience any paint rubbing off from them being on there and vibrating during travel? Maybe so, but I wanted to attach as simple as possible and you don't even notice them when they're clean. They do rub on the top of five of the spokes near the center. They seem to stick at the edges with the foam insulation strips.

Not enough time yet, and the way we mostly drive we may never be able to tell. Last long trip starting with a full charge, we got 53mpg at highway speeds. After battery was depleted, and I stopped and filled the tank, it got 43mpg with no charge at 65-70 mph for 100 miles.

Not enough time yet, and the way we mostly drive we may never be able to tell. Last long trip starting with a full charge, we got 53mpg at highway speeds. After battery was depleted, and I stopped and filled the tank, it got 43mpg with no charge at 65-70 mph for 100 miles.

Will take a while to get to the point where it is automatic especially if you only drive on the charge.

There is a direct relationship between the lower percentage of ICE use and higher MPG's. The two tanks that I got 68mpg, my ICE % was 28-30%, that is why the 2 Bar rule is so important, when you use less than 2 Bars the ICE runs less efficient and longer so you lose more heat to the radiator.(water pump doesn't run when ICE is off) Running above 2 Bars, the HVB doesn't charge faster and the ICE is less efficient. Obviously it isn't practical to only run at 2 Bars all the time because of driving conditions, but the more you do the better MPG's.

Interesting Paul, so 2 bar it and get the engine off quicker and use the battery until it can't no more?

What about on the highway, keep the engine on or keep it off and keep draining and recharging the battery?

-=>Raja.

I drive on the HWY with pretty much the same strategy as in town taking advantage of the terrain when I can. Looking at my fill up pics for HWY Driving I'm seeing as low as 30% EV with bad head winds, climbing. cold temps and rain to 60%EV with tail winds. Drafting and speed add into the mix, faster you go the more ICE it takes. It seems to me that HVB charging is the most efficient between 38-50% SOC, at about 53% SOC EV assist kicks in.

Raja , you can get a decent draft from a respectable distance back from the rear of the trailer. 100' will get you about 40% reduction.

I've found that driving about 65-66 mph I am catching up to many of the trucks governed at 62 mph, (Swift, Schneider, JB Hunt etc...) while the faster trucks and cars breeze by me .

I would assume you can see the draft on the kw gauge. Should see a drop as soon as you enter it. Back in my younger days, I would pull in behind a truck until I felt the buffeting, then move a bit closer until I felt things smooth out.

I tried your method a couple of years ago, but it didn't work as well as 2 Bar accelerate to 5 mph over and EV to 5 to 10mph under and repeat. This is like P&G and the Science behind it is the ICE is most efficient at 2 Bars but that is to much power for maintaining 65 mph maybe up to a factor of 3 so part of the extra power is use to accelerate and the other for charging the HVB. If you use the ICE all the time the ICE efficiency is way down using maybe 1 1/4 Bars and wasting energy to the radiator.

There is a direct relationship between the lower percentage of ICE use and higher MPG's. The two tanks that I got 68mpg, my ICE % was 28-30%, that is why the 2 Bar rule is so important, when you use less than 2 Bars the ICE runs less efficient and longer so you lose more heat to the radiator.(water pump doesn't run when ICE is off) Running above 2 Bars, the HVB doesn't charge faster and the ICE is less efficient. Obviously it isn't practical to only run at 2 Bars all the time because of driving conditions, but the more you do the better MPG's.

The improvement in FE drafting is dependent on the air speed going by. With a 30 mph tail wind going 70mph you would probably see about 1 mpg improvement, but with a 30 mph head wind going 70 mph = 100 mph so your improvement could be 6 mpg or almost 100 mile improvement of range. BTW I hate getting 32mpg with 30 mph head winds and uphill climbing, what a drag.

Not on fuelly, too many things to keep track of, but here is my range when I filled up the tank (see pictures below).

2nd picture after I recharged the battery having driven 72 miles since fillup burning about a gallon of fuel.

The range tells your RAFE, which is just over 50 for me for city driving on the ICE.

When I let the ICE run continuously on the highway, it drops some filling the tank while on the way to FL I've seen a range of 632 miles, posted it here as well some time ago. Its about 45.1 mpg at 66mph vs 50.6 in the city.